Troubled security firm G4S (LON:G4S) was again in the limelight following the massacre at a club in Orlando, Florida over the weekend.
The company’s share price slumped by 6% on Monday after it emerged G4S employed the man responsible for America’s worst mass shooting in history.
In a statement, G4S said the man in question, Omar Mateen, was subject to a “detailed company screening” on two occasions, both of which revealed no “adverse findings”.
US contracts may become harder to come by – potentially a serious hit to the company’s bottom line.
Over the last few years, G4S has come under pressure after it failed to supply enough security guards for the 2012 London Olympics when the army had to make up the shortfall, while it was referred to the Serious Fraud Office in 2013 for overcharging the ministry of justice
Elsewhere, start-up bank Mondo is changing its name following a trademark challenge and it’s letting its customers decide what it should now be called.
The other party involved in the trademark hasn’t been named for legal reasons, although Mondo said that it wasn’t after any money.
CEO and founder, Tom Blomfield, is reported as saying: “It’s annoying but I think in two or three months we’ll have forgotten that we were ever called Mondo.”
Predictably, Twitter was awash with some questionable suggestions…
— Ant (@iamanthonyjames) June 13, 2016
Housebuilder Persimmon (LON:PSN) has been urged to cut back on an executive pay plan that could potentially see management share £600mln.
The scheme is one of the largest ever at a FTSE 100 company outside of the banks and could see chief executive Jeff Fairburn pocket more than £100mln.
Royal London Asset Management has said that the payments are far too high “in all circumstances”, although not everyone is convinced Persimmon is to blame…
Gate left open horse bolts not sure horse is to blame.
— Peter Morgan (@psimpsonmorgan) June 13, 2016
In the world of the small caps, Metals Exploration Plc (LON:MTL) announced today that it has poured the first gold from its Runruno in the Philippines.
The pour of this first gold doré is only part of the ongoing “test and debugging” of the plant but represents great news for Metals Ex, which has been beset with problems over the past year.
A super typhoon last autumn meant work on the mine had to be suspended, while the company has also had to obtain around 400 permits to get to this point.
Shares jumped nearly 10% on today’s news.
It’s been quiet on the Horse Hill/Gatwick Gusher front recently, but operator UK Oil & Gas Investments PLC (LON:UKOG) today increased its footprint in the Weald basin, in southern England, through a deal with Celtique Energie and Magellan Petroleum.
It is acquiring 100% of PEDL234 from the two companies, which each have 50% of the project.
The transaction, worth £3.5mln, sees the company add a regulatory approved drilling opportunity in the Kimmeridge formation, which proved successful during testing at the Horse Hill project.
It more than doubles UKOG’s net acreage holdings in the prime Kimmeridge limestone oil province, the company highlighted.